As someone who only recently started watching Lynch through Twin Peaks (finished the series a few months ago and Inland Empire this week) this is a ranking that will undoubtedly change over time with rewatches and a more comprehensive look into his works.

comeongethappy wrote:this is a ranking that will undoubtedly change over time with rewatches and a more comprehensive look into his works.

I was thinking earlier today, my first viewing of a Lynch film is rarely (if ever?) my favourite run-through. It's always amazing & unique in its own way but it's usually the second or third time around that the whole thing hits me hardest. Which is pretty exciting considering there's 18 hours of new Lynch on its way... should I be more excited for the re-watch?

Also, will be interesting to see if INLAND EMPIRE rises in the ranks for you. It was probably the slowest growing of his films for me but it's now my favourite.

Hey that's outside the rules of this list is it not? Otherwise That is absolutely my choice for DL's best work EVER in TPs03-8. I have been staring at my white baron wall non stop since it aired. Completely fractured me!

1) Eraserhead2) Inland Empire (these two are very close)-------- Twin Peaks as a whole (no separate ranking for Fire Walk With Me, as I haven't yet considered it uncoupled from the series -- Season 3 Episode 8 on its own might be my third favorite Lynch work, but it's even better in context of the whole)3) Lost Highway4) Mulholland Drive5) Blue Velvet

Still need to see The Elephant Man, Dune, Wild at Heart, and The Straight Story.

I like them all, but those first two in particular are haunting and memorable in ways that cement them as some of my favorite pieces of film ever. Those two are raw doses of someone else's spirituality, utilizing genuinely nightmarish and disarming imagery to communicate how it feels to be a gendered person in a surprisingly coherent way.

It's actually surprising to me that most people don't have Eraserhead and Empire closer together -- lover them or hate them. They feel like sister works.

1) Eraserhead2) Inland Empire (these two are very close)-------- Twin Peaks as a whole (no separate ranking for Fire Walk With Me, as I haven't yet considered it uncoupled from the series -- Season 3 Episode 8 on its own might be my third favorite Lynch work, but it's even better in context of the whole)3) Lost Highway4) Mulholland Drive5) Blue Velvet

Still need to see The Elephant Man, Dune, Wild at Heart, and The Straight Story.

I like them all, but those first two in particular are haunting and memorable in ways that cement them as some of my favorite pieces of film ever. Those two are raw doses of someone else's spirituality, utilizing genuinely nightmarish and disarming imagery to communicate how it feels to be a gendered person in a surprisingly coherent way.

It's actually surprising to me that most people don't have Eraserhead and Empire closer together -- lover them or hate them. They feel like sister works.

Could you please elaborate on how and what brought you to such a conclusion? There are some tone elements at work and both have a haunting song in them but Jack Nance similar to Laura Dern I can only make tenuous connections to their characters at best. Love both films. Oh BTW-See WILD AT HEART!!!! Worth it for the the Sherilyn Fenn Cameo. Ya won't be shaking that one in this life ... no idea why I went old Timmy, Scottish at the end there? Probably a stroke LOL.

Jatriot wrote:Could you please elaborate on how and what brought you to such a conclusion? There are some tone elements at work and both have a haunting song in them but Jack Nance similar to Laura Dern I can only make tenuous connections to their characters at best. Love both films. Oh BTW-See WILD AT HEART!!!! Worth it for the the Sherilyn Fenn Cameo. Ya won't be shaking that one in this life ... no idea why I went old Timmy, Scottish at the end there? Probably a stroke LOL.

Have been meaning to reply to this for a few days now.

Just as Eraserhead is about the feeling of being a man in an uncaring world, Inland Empire is about the feeling of being a woman in a predatory one. The make similarly nightmarish, surrealistic moves to communicate each experience.

That isn't to say that the films are only communicate as gendered experiences -- in fact a lot of what makes them so affecting is how communicative they are about particular forms of emotional experiences regardless of the gender of the viewer. But I do feel they are his most gendered films, and the the gender of the protagonist in each is important in eliciting the right kind of response from the viewer.

They're inverses and parallels in so many other ways as well. Compared to Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, which I also see as something of a sister pair within Lynch's catalogue, with their active protagonists trapped by inescapable consequences of evil actions, Eraserhead and Inland Empire offer similarly passive leads. Yet the decisions that trap both Henry and Nikki are also inverted. Henry traps himself by failing to take action at multiple points. Nikki traps herself by walking through a door she shouldn't (and this is true both figuratively and literally regardless of which incarnation of Dern is the "real" one). The nightmarish structures we surround ourselves with, and I think the films indict these thoroughly, are such that a man must speak out to survive; a woman has it worse; she must forgo assertive actions.

I think their endings also mirror each other in certain ways. Without going too far into it (and I'd probably need another viewing of each to offer a compelling argument) Eraserhead's is comforting without being cathartic. Empire's is cathartic without really offering comfort.

They're twin explorations of the kinds of evil that target passivity, of gendered experiences in arbitrary and bizarre social structures. I find both incredibly moving.

LATE EDIT -- Having recently watched Fire Walk With Me on its own and found it really, really does work as a powerful stand-alone feature, my list would more firmly be: